Postwar Uncertainty
Society Challenges Convention
Literature in the 1920's
Technological Advance Improve Life
Revolution In The Arts
Scientists made many medical advancements during the war
Though many of the new different ways in painting and music in which it started in the prewar, and later evolved after the war.
Setting the Stage
Artist Rebel against Tradition
After the war, people began questioning traditional beliefs. People began to find answers in scientific developments, which challenged the way people looked at the world.
Artist wanted too bring out the inner world of emotion, and inner piece of imagination. Rather than showing realistic beings and objects, the Artist started to rebel.
World War 1 disrupted traditional social patterns. New ideas and ways of life led to new individual freedom in the 1920s.
Expressionist painters like Paul Klee and Wassily Kandisky used bold colors, and disoriented/exaggerated forms.
World War I caused philosophers and writers to question accepted ideas about reason and progress
Many people liked the convenience of improvements in transportation and communication. As society became more advanced, women demanded more rights, and young people adopted new values.
Advancements in technology were used to make transportation and communication improvements
The Automobile Alters Society
Meanwhile, unconventional styles and ideas in literature, philosophy, and music reflected the uncertain times.
Inspired by the Traditional African Art, Georges Braque of France, and Pablo Picasso of Spain founded Cubism in 1907. After Cubism was made public, it transformed natural shaped items into geometrical forms of the specific object.
Many people also feared the future and expressed doubt about traditional religious beliefs
Automobiles saw many improvements after the war including electric starters and more powerful engines.
Writers Reflect Society's Concerns
By 1937, Britain was producing 511,000 automobiles a year, and middle class families could afford them.
A New Revolution in Science
Albert EInstein and Sigmund Fruend's ideas had a huge impact on the 20th century. These people were part of the scientific revolution.
This led to more people traveling for pleasure, and more people moving to the suburb who would commute into the city to work.
Objects that were broken down into smaller pieces, they were made with sharper angles and sharper edges. Often these views of paintings were often depicted at the same time.
Albert Einstien offered startling new ideas on space, time, matter, and energy. Scientists had found that light travels at exactly the same speed no matter what direction it moves in relation to the earth.
Airplanes Transform Travel
International air travel came within reach after the war. Pilots were able to fly across the Atlantic by 1919.
In 1905, Einstein theorized that while the speed of light is constant, other things that seem constant, such as space and time, are not. Space and time can change when measured relative to an object moving near the speed of light.
Radio and Movies Dominate Popular Entertainment
Writers and thinkers expressed their anxieties by creating disturbing visions of the present and future
WW1 caused rapid changes in radio technology.
Since relative motion is the key to Einstein's idea, it is called the theory of relativity. Now uncertainty and relativity replaced Isaac Newton's comforting belief of a world operating according to absolute laws of motion and gravity.
War made a deep impression on many writers, Franz Kafka wrote books about people being caught in threatening situations they can neither understand nor escape
Thinkers React to Uncertainties
In search for meaning in an uncertain world, some thinkers turned to the philosophy known as existentialism.
Surrealism is an art movement sought to link the world of dreams with real life. Surrealism was inspired by Freud's ideas.
The term Surreal means "Beyond or Above Reality". Surrealists tried to call upon the unconscious part of their minds.
How was Surrealism connected with Freud's ideas?
Answer - Surrealism was connected with Freud's ideas by having paintings in an eerie, dreamlike quality.
Composers Try New Styles
In both classical and popular music, composers moved away from the traditional ways.
In Freud's ballet masterpiece, The Rite of Spring, the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky used irregular Rhythms and dissonances, or harsh combinations of sounds .
The Austrian composer Arnold Shoenberg rejected the traditional harmonies and musical sales.
A new popular music style called JAZZ, emerged in the U.S.
Question - What aspects of earlier music did new composers rebel against?
Answer - The aspects of earlier music new composers rebel against, was that some composers were against the new art era.
Young people were especially willing to break with the past to try and experiment with modern values. There were also a lot of changes in women's roles
The independent spirit of the times showed clearly in the changes women were making in their lives. The war had allowed women to take on new roles.
Their work in the war effort was decisive in helping them win the right to vote. Woman's suffrage became law in many countries post war.
Some countries that made women's suffrage law were the United States, Britain, Germany, Sweden, and Austria.
Women abandoned restrictive clothing and hairstyles. They wore shorter, looser garments and had their hair cut shorter. They also wore makeup, drove cars, and drank in public.
Most women still followed traditional paths of marriage and family, but a growing number of women still spoke out for more freedoms in their lives.
Margaret Sanger and Emma Goldman spoke in favor of birth control, and risked arrest in doing so. The number of women in medicine, education, journalism, and other professions also increased.
What goals were women seeking in the 1920's?
They were seeking equal treatment in all aspects of life. They wanted to be able to do what they wanted, whether it was what they wore or where they worked.
How did the changes in women's clothes reflect their changing roles?
It showed the independence that they were striving for. It wasn't about what men thought of what they were wearing, it was about them.
Tolerance
Culture
Identity
Change
Existentialists believed that there is no universal meaning to life. Each person creates his o her own meaning in life through choices made and actions taken.
From his experiments Freud constructed a theory about the human mind. He believed that human behavior is irrational, or beyond reason.
Change
The existentialists were influenced by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche
He called the irrational part of the mind the unconscious. Freud's ideas weakened faith in reason. By the 1920s, Freud's theories had developed widespread influences.
Change
Why did writer's visions of the present and future change?
Answer: They were disillusioned by war
KDKA was the first radio station in 1920, and became popular very quickly,
How might Nietzsche's ideas have influenced politicians?
Answer: Nietzsche wrote western ideas such as reason, democracy, and progress. He urged a return to the values of pride, assertiveness, and strength. His ideas attracted growning attention in the 20th century.
Many different countries produced films in the 1920's. European films were mostly a serious art form, but films from Hollywood were made for entertainment.
In what way were Freud’s ideas as revolutionary as Einstein’s?
Ideas of Austrian physician Sigmund Freud were as revolutionary as Einstein's because Freud treated patients with psychological problems.
Conflict
Charlie Chaplin was a comic genius who was known for portraying a lonely tramp.
Value
Values & Beliefs: Shared beliefs about what is good-bad, right-wrong, or desirable-undesirable / Specific statements that people hold to be true.
Which technological advance do you think had the greatest effect on society?
Why were Einstein's ideas upsetting to many people?
Religion: A system of beliefs, symbols and rituals, that guide human behavior, gives meaning to life and unites believers into a community.
The automobile changed the way most people traveled and where they lived and worked.
Change
How might World War I have spurred developments in the radio?
Conflict
People had to communicate over long distances faster. The best way to do this at the time was with the radio.
It caused uncertainty and relativity.
Change
War
Continuity
Change